Triptych: The Life of the Virgin (c. 1325–1350): Art, History and Details

Triptych: The Life of the Virgin (c. 1325–1350) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Virgin and Child, standing beneath a three-part arch, occupy the central plaque of this triptych. On the wings are carved four scenes from the life of the Virgin: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Magi, and Christ's Presentation in the Temple. By the end of the 12th century, devotional objects like this became widespread in many parts of Western Europe as a result of the growing cult of the Virgin.

Object facts

• Title: Triptych: The Life of the Virgin
• Date: c. 1325–1350
• Culture: France, Lorraine?, or Austria?, Gothic period, 14th century
• Type: Ivory
• Technique: ivory, traces of gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 25.9 x 21.3 cm (10 3/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1951.450

A detail from the museum

The pinnacle, roof moldings, and base are modern additions attached before the object entered our collection.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• HEFNER-ALTENECK, Jacob Heinrich von. Trachten, Kunstwerke Und Geräthschaften Vom Frühen Mittelalter Bis Ende Des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. ... Zweite Vermehrte ... Auflage. 1879.
• Brunn [Brno] exhbition catalogue, 1884.
• H. Semper, "Über eine besondere Gruppe elfenbeinerner Klappaltärchen des XIV Jahrhunderts", Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst 11 (1898).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.